Wheat Flour II

There are several kinds of wheat flour available for sale with the most popular being enriched and bleached all-purpose flour. The differences between the flours comes down to the type of wheat, the parts of wheat included, the processing of the wheat, and any additives added to the flour. In this article, I'll examine each of these characteristics:

Protein content
A certain type of protein called gluten (glutenin) is responsible for wheat flour's elastic properties. The more gluten in a flour makes it easier for the flour to build up a tough structure able to trap the waste gases of yeast during kneading as well as rise effectively during baking. Less gluten in a flour produces a lighter, less chewier texture such as those found in cakes. The exact amount of gluten in your flour depends on where it was milled and the variations in growth of the wheat crop.

The main wheat varieties grown in the United States are, in order of quantity grown and sold, hard red wheat, soft red wheat, durum and white. Hard red wheat is used to produce flour high in gluten content, while soft red wheat is used for flour low in gluten. Durum is milled to produce semolina flour used mainly for macaroni pastas. Semolina flour has the highest gluten content of all mass produced wheat flours. White wheat is produced in smaller quantities in the U.S. and makes low gluten flour.

High gluten flour and bread flour is produced from hard wheat. High gluten flour has a gluten percentage of about 12-14% while bread flour contains about 10-13% gluten. Both flours are almost completely made of hard wheat, but some high gluten flours are treated to reduce starch content, raising the gluten content to around 14%. These flours are generally used for making breads. High gluten flour is reserved for breads that are extra elastic such as bagels and pizza.

Cake flour is produced from soft wheat and is low in gluten content (8-10%). This flour is used for making delicate cakes. Baked goods made with cake flour has a tendency to crumble because of the low gluten content.

All purpose flour is made from a mixture of hard and soft wheats. The gluten content ranges from 9-12%. This is the most versatile flour because it can be used to make both cakes and breads. However, breads won't be as chewy and cakes won't be as tender as if you used bread or cake flour.

Pastry flour is also a mix of hard and soft wheat flours with an emphasis on soft. Generally, the gluten content is 9-10% and is often recommended for pie crusts.

Germ
Whole wheat flour contains the germ (the embryo of the wheat kernel) and is more flavorful than regular all-purpose flour which does not include the germ. Because the germ is included, there are more nutrients as well as fiber and fat content in whole wheat flour. However, the flour should be stored in the refrigerator to prevent the germ oils from becoming rancid.

Processing
Almost all the flour sold is steel ground meaning a large machine with steel hammers or rollers crushes and grinds the wheat kernels down. This is a very efficient means of producing flour, but the steel surfaces heat up with the high speed and volume of wheat being ground. This heat causes some of the vitamins in steel ground flour to be destroyed during the grinding process.

Alternatively, stone ground flour is produced by the relatively slow grinding of large stones together (with the wheat in the middle). This type of flour is harder to find and almost always leaves the germ intact producing whole wheat flour. There is no heat build up, so all the nutrients stay intact as the four is made.

Bleaching or aging is another process that differentiates flours. Bleached flours produce doughs that are less sticky and rise better than unbleached flours. Bleaching can be accomplished by aging the flour over time (the oxidation of the flour causes the yellow pigments to fade) or through a chemical means (usually using chlorine dioxide and potassium bromade to age the flour). The aging process removes some of the naturally occurring vitamin E present in wheat. The flour ends up uniformly white and has (generally) better baking properties.

The texture of the flour is determined by how much sifting (or bolting) is performed at the mill. The degree of sifting will result in a powdery flour or a coarse flour. Prior to packaging, most flours in the United States are also presifted. Presifted flour can be measured directly from the bag by stirring, measuring with a dry measuring cup, and leveled with a straight edge. Unsifted flour needs to be sifted prior to measuring (by volume). If unsifted flour is measured by weight, it should still be sifted prior to use in a recipe requiring sifted flour (assume all recipes require sifted flour).

Additives
Enriched flour contain vitamins and nutrients that have been added to offset the loss from the grinding and aging of flour. Usually, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and iron are added to flours that do not contain wheat germ. In addition vitamin E is often added to bleached wheat. Some brands will also contain additional vitamin A, C, and D.

Some bread flours will have a little bit of malted barley flour added to help yeast growth. In addition, potassium bromate may be included to lend strength and help the dough maintain the yeast gases.

The addition of baking powder and salt produces self-rising flour or leavened flour. When using self-rising flour, simply omit the baking powder and salt from the recipe (leave in any baking soda a recipe calls for).

Other names?
Outside of the United States, different types of flour may have different names. For example, plain flour is often similar to all purpose flour. However, the regional differences that cause all-purpose flours to vary from U.S. state to state, also cause similar flours from other nations to differ slightly in property from those in the United States.

Measuring flour
Whenever possible, flour should be measured using a scale. With a good digital scale with fast response, it is actually easier to measure flour by simply pouring it into a bowl on the scale and stopping when you hit the mark.

If you do not own a scale and need to use a measuring cup, then make sure you use a dry measuring cup (one that measures to the lip of the cup, not to some marking below the lip such as this poor design - please don't buy these). Scoop the sifted flour into the cup and level with a flat straight edge (like a bench scraper or ruler). You'll get really close to 125 g per cup with this technique - but you have to make sure you sift your flour. (One easy and mostly effective way to do this is to store your flour in a large air tight container. I use a pickling jar big enough to hold a 5 pound bag of flour with room to spare. Before measuring, pick up the container and shake it so you incorporate as much of the air in the jar into the flour as possible. It works best if the jar is half air and half flour. Once you've done this, let it sit for a few minutes so you don't get a face full of flour when you open the lid. Then scoop and level.)

When reading a recipe, you should always start off by assuming that it is written with sifted flour in mind. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup flour, it should be assumed that it is one cup of sifted flour. The reason for this is that measuring unsifted flour is inaccurate and pretty much impossible to replicate from household to household. If the flour hasn't been sifted, how do you know how much it's settled over time? The amount of settling is dependant on how much the bag has been jiggled during transportation, how long it's been sitting on the shelf, and other environmental factors that are unpredictable. So, one person may scoop store bought "presifted" (which pretty much means unsifted by the time you get home) flour and find that it is actually 20% more flour than grandma who wrote down the recipe normally uses.

Unfortunately, these days, it seems that no one likes to follow standards and American cookbooks seem to be written based on the 140 g per cup "standard" which is nearly impossible to replicate through the scoop and level method. The reason why 140 g per cup is used so much now is that it is in between the ultra-densely settled 160 g per cup and the just sifted 125 g per cup. Using 140 g per cup as a recipe measurement means it's unlikely that anyone will be able to replicate your recipe (unless they have a scale) but no one will be creating a disasterous baked good if they are off by 10%. Unfortunately, 10% can alter the texture of your cookies quite a bit... so measure with a scale and forget all this volumetric nonsense.


Written by Michael Chu
www.cookingforengineers.com

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Wheat flour I

More wheat flour is produced than any other flour. Wheat varieties are called "clean," "white," or "brown" if they have high gluten content, and they are called "soft" or "weak" flour if gluten content is low. Hard flour, or bread flour, is high in gluten, with 12% to 14% gluten content, and has elastic toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer texture. Soft flour is usually divided into cake flour, which is the lowest in gluten, and pastry flour, which has slightly more gluten than cake flour.

In terms of the parts of the grain (the grass fruit) used in flour—the endosperm or starchy part, the germ or protein part, and the bran or fibre part—there are three general types of flour. White flour is made from the endosperm only. Whole grain or wholemeal flour is made from the entire grain, including bran, endosperm, and germ. A germ flour is made from the endosperm and germ, excluding the bran.

• All-purpose or plain flour is a blended wheat flour with a gluten content lower than bread flour, ranging between 9% and 12%. Depending on brand or the region where it is purchased it may be composed of all hard or soft wheats or a blend of the two, and can range from low gluten content to moderately high. It is marketed as an inexpensive alternative to bakers' flours, supposedly acceptable for most household baking needs.
• Bleached flour is treated with flour bleaching agents to whiten it (freshly milled flour is yellowish) and to give it more gluten-producing potential. Oxidizing agents are usually employed, most commonly organic peroxides like acetone peroxide or benzoyl peroxide, nitrogen dioxide, or chlorine. A similar effect can be achieved by letting the flour oxidize with oxygen in the air ("natural aging") for approximately 10 days; however, this process is more expensive due to the time required.
• Bread Flour is always made from hard wheat, usually hard spring wheat. It has a very high gluten content, between 10% and 13%, making it excellent for yeast bread baking.
  
• Bromated flour has a maturing agent added. The agent's role is to help with developing gluten, a role similar to the flour bleaching agents. Bromate is usually used. Other choices are phosphates, ascorbic acid, and malted barley. Bromated flour has been banned in much of the world, as bromate is classified as possibly carcinogenic in humans (Group 2B) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)., but remains available in the United States.
• Cake flour is a finely milled flour made from soft wheat. It has very low gluten content, between 8% and 10%, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher gluten content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Highly sifted cake flours may require different volume amounts in recipes than all-purpose flour. Related to cake flour are masa harina (from maize), maida flour (from wheat or tapioca), and pure starches.
• Graham flour is a special type of whole-wheat flour. The endosperm is finely ground, as in white flour, while the bran and germ are coarsely ground. Graham flour is uncommon outside of the USA and Europe. It is the basis of true graham crackers. Many graham crackers on the market are actually imitation grahams because they do not contain graham flour or even whole-wheat flour. Another difference, however, is that commercial graham crackers are designed to be flavorful, unlike Mr. Graham's vision of a bland diet aimed at curbing masturbation among other perceived social ills.
• Pastry flour or cookie flour or cracker flour has slightly higher gluten content than cake flour but lower than all-purpose flour. Its gluten content ranges between 9% and 10%. It is suitable for pie pastry and tarts, some cookies, muffins, biscuits and other quick breads. Flour is shaken through a sieve to reduce the amount of lumps for cooking pastry.
• Self-rising or self-raising flour is flour that is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. It was invented by Henry Jones. Self-rising flour is typically composed of the following ratio:

• 1 cup (100 g) flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) baking powder
• a pinch to ½ teaspoon (1 g or less) salt

• Sharp flour is produced in Fiji and primarily used in Indian cuisine.
• Spelt flour is a flour produced from the type of wheat called spelt. It is less commonly used in modern cooking than other wheat varieties. It is still used for speciality baking.
• Tang flour or wheat starch is a type of wheat flour used primarily in Chinese cooking for making the outer layer of dumplings and buns. It is also used in Vietnamese cuisine, where it is called bột lọc trong.

Source: www.en.wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia

10 Ways to Get Traffic to Any Website

Traffic is critical for any online venture, and because of this, you should know the best ways to get traffic to any website you have started.

1. Optimize Your Website

If your website is optimized for search engines, your site will show up higher in the rankings and you're more likely to get people clicking on your website. This isn't a guarantee, but it's almost a foregone conclusion that you won't get a lot of traffic if your website doesn't show up on the first couple of pages in the results.

2. Advertise

It's not likely that you'll get a lot of traffic if you don't advertise at all. Make sure you sign up for an ad service like Google AdSense. This will ensure that people see your ad when they search for something similar to what your website offers.

3. Have Good Content

Not only will you attract visitors if your website is interesting or entertaining, but you're more likely to have people come back.

4. Social Networking Sites

These new social networking sites are critical sources of traffic. If you tell all your Facebook friends to check out your website, and you update your Twitter for all the people who follow you, you'll find yourself with more traffic.

5. Social Bookmarking Sites

There is a distinction between networking and bookmarking. Sites such as Digg are important because they can get popular content even more popular. If you write something controversial or clever, you'll benefit from additional traffic with these types of sites.

6. Marketing

There are multiple types of marketing. With affiliate marketing, you get other people to help sell your products. With "regular" marketing, you simply explain why your product or service is the best.

7. Review Sites

These sites are set up either by you or someone else, and it's their job to fill up the top of the search engine results with reviews of your product and service. If you do it right, every one of the sites will point people to your website.

8. Testimonials

While not as effective as they used to be, if you have other people give detailed testimonials about your product or service (whether on your site or theirs), you'll attract more curious people.

9. Word of Mouth

Even social bookmarking sites can't supplant the benefits of good, old-fashioned word of mouth. When people tell their friends, you get more traffic.

10. Be the Best

Focus on the high-end market of whatever your website is for, and strive to do better than any of your competitors. When people feel satisfied, they're more likely to get you more traffic.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Nathan_Dean

Freedom - What It's Like to Quit Your Job

Many of us remember the empowering song from the 70s, "Take This Job and Shove It" about a man who had had enough and decided he would rather be free than spend another minute at a job he hated. I think that almost everyone can identify with this sentiment but the fear of loss of security often prevents us from repeating those lines ourselves.

Others, however, know that there is more out there than the cubicle where they spend most of time between 9 and 5 and they decide to go ahead and take the risk of the unknown and simply QUIT. While YOU may think they are crazy, just about every poll that has been done on groups of people who quit their job to become their own boss, no matter how good, or BAD, they are doing, say that quitting their job was the best thing they ever did.

Nowadays, thanks to the growing number of people who are successfully making money on the Internet, people are not as locked into their regular jobs as they once were. Learning how to make money on the internet is just one of the many opportunities you can pursue if you quit your job of course, but thanks to the growing number of people who are online around the world, it can be one of the most lucrative.

For those folks that are tired of their career paths as they exist, but are in no hurry to fire up the PC to try to earn their paycheck, they still have many opportunities afforded them. Employers everywhere are starting to realize that allowing their employees to work at home can be a viable and PROFITABLE solution for both parties. Employers can save on overhead expenses from not having to have an employee onsite and perhaps budgeted items like company cars or even health insurance, and the employee can "be their own boss" and work from the comfort of their own home.

It can be a tough thing to be staring at retirement just a few years off and think "What if...I had just quit my job..." Well, if you take some time and investigate the opportunities that lie before you, you may realize the greatest freedom of all, by deciding to QUIT your job.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Nathan_Dean

An Easy Way to Start Working From Home and Make Money Online

Even if you know what you want to do to earn money you need to research the market thoroughly before you can start in earnest. If you want to work from home it is a good idea to set up at least one firm job in advance of actually taking the plunge. By doing this you are assured of having some money coming in right from the start.

Once you get going you need to make sure that you look for fresh work on a regular basis. This is something you won't have been used to if you have been working for someone else. That wasn't your concern - but now it is. And if you don't keep up with searching for new work you will very soon run out.

To make sure this task is as easy as possible, try and look for work every day if you can. Remember that whatever you might be doing from home you won't get every single job you actually apply for. You might only get two out of every ten (for example). So apply for more than you need accordingly.

Some kind of schedule is also a good idea. For example experiment to see when your best working hours are and then stick to them. You don't have to be 9 to 5 any more, but having a schedule is still worthwhile.

The best ways to make money from home include: Paid surveys, freelancing sites like Elance, and selling products and services online. Some people have even found online wealth by selling products on eBay and using a dropshipping service to ship the products out. That way they don't need to store inventory in their house.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Nathan_Dean

Scholarships For Women - Tips to Applying For a Scholarship

Traditionally, scholarships were for the brainier students only but that has changed. Nowadays, there's a scholarship for every occasion and scholarships for women is no exception.

Other than academic scholarships, there are various other scholarships that you can apply for as a woman. You may be good at sports, or belong to a minority group, have a special interest, want to study in the sciences field, have a lack of finances or perhaps just be a female. All of these areas have scholarships that you can apply for and it is time that you buckle down and find out more.

Here are a few tips to get you going:

- Do the homework
By this, I mean you need to do the research and find out all the scholarships that you could qualify for. The Internet is a great resource for this. Then get all the application forms and complete them. Many of the application forms can de downloaded from the web.

- Complete the forms
Fill the forms out carefully and make sure you answer all the questions and attach everything that they ask for. If you are not meticulous with this, it will cause delays in processing your application. Do not lie on the application forms, just be honest and give relevant information. If you are in doubt whether you qualify, take the chance and still apply as you have nothing to lose.

- Make copies of the forms
Always keep copies of all the forms before you send them off. At least then, if they go missing, you can send a copy and this way you also have the copy to refer to should they ask you further questions. Also, remember to apply before the deadlines. It is not a very good reflection to be late for the deadline and your application will most likely not be considered.

There are many scholarships that you can apply for as a woman but you need to do this yourself, nobody can do it for you. Why not start right away with this quick and easy application that could gain you a $10000 scholarship?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_Hanly

Cell Phone Searches - A Really Simple Way to Find Out Who's Calling You

It can sometimes be frustrating to try to learn who is calling your phone. With Caller ID, some phones often leave a number without leaving a name. With cell phones, the only information that is usually displayed is the number and carrier name. This doesn't really help you to decide whether or not you should answer a call from an unrecognized number. But there is a service called reverse cell number lookup, which can help you find out who is calling before you risk answering an unwanted caller.

Cell numbers are notoriously difficult to look up. Carriers have not wanted to put their customer's names on Caller ID, and this has made it hard for people to know who is calling their phones. You've probably been very frustrated by this. But the reverse cell phone number lookup service allows you to enter the number into a form and retrieve all available information on that number, including the name of the person calling. This is a totally free service; the large databases that are available are generally very well maintained and updated frequently. This service can be very helpful to people and is becoming more and more popular as businesses have started to use cell phones to call consumers, just so they can avoid Caller ID labels.

With reverse cell phone number lookup, you can finally determine if a call is important enough to answer or if you can just keep avoiding calls from that number. You'll never have to miss another important call again because you didn't know who was calling. And you'll also learn who has your phone number while you screen out unwanted sales and marketing calls.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Wilson

Free or Fee? What is Music Worth?

We are much more reliant today than ever before on technology and the many contributions it makes to our lives every second. Perhaps most notable is the many options technology has given to the Internet and the world of entertainment, making many artistic projects and productions, from digital music albums to e-books to short and long films and television programs available to a larger audience of people.

Steadily children that grew up with the Internet and don't remember a time without it are reaching adulthood, and attitudes about both the monetary value of artists' works available online and the cultural value of these works are changing. This revolution began with the introduction of CD's, which became easy to copy and distribute to friends.

There are certainly varying opinions about the worth of downloadable music and purchased music in general; while a younger generation of music lovers is certainly divided on whether music downloaded online should be free music, there are definitely more in that generation deciding that perhaps people should be more freely allowed. When it is so much easier to copy mp3's online and from friends, and also easier to record entire albums in the studio with full digital capabilities, many young music listeners wonder, is a musician's work and the musician him/herself really worth as much as at the dawn of the recording industry?

Many studies have shown that adults that remember a time when recorded music was expensive and more difficult to obtain are much more cognizant and respectful of basic music Copyright Law. They understand why certain laws are in place, and some that are artists themselves have relied on Copyright Law to protect their creative expressions. Copyright Law also allows music and other art forms to perpetuate in the world, and is the reason there is so much variety available.

The music industry has been cracking down on how people get their music recently in response to the increased availability of downloadable music and digital music on the Internet. The music industry was largely unprepared for the sudden introduction of file sharing programs to music lovers, and it has taken several years for them to realize their impact on musicians, songwriters, other music professionals and record companies. Before the Internet, most young people bought CD's, and shared them by simply burning a copy for friends. While this was certainly a violation of Copyright Law, it somehow did not pose as large of a problem as when mp3 players became available and people downloaded free music off the Internet en mass through high-speed connections. The music industry has recently started filing lawsuit after lawsuit to stop this phenomenon and put systems in place to make music lovers pay for downloadable music. As was evidenced in recent lawsuits that were filed against those in small towns in middle America, you do not have to be high profile to suffer consequences for violating the law when it comes to digital music.

The industry has been driving hard to try to get the public to recognize that not paying for music takes money away from artists and musicians that they deserve for their hard work. While music is a source of entertainment and a cultural commodity for most, for those involved in creating it, it is a job that they rely on to make lives for themselves. Like any other professional, musicians can't be expected to do their work for free. While the amount some receive is certainly debatable, what is not debatable is that they should receive something. The latest drive to enforce Copyright Law by the music industry is causing a stir among young people. New anti-piracy software is now being put on CD's to cut down on illegal CD copying. The software prevents listeners from burning the CD more than five times.

Teens especially are noting that this will not stop others from discovering new ways to get music. Many adults agree that someone is bound to come up with a way around the software, as technology always seems to find a way to surmount obstacles that prevent free sharing of music, DVD's and other media.

Many teens note that there is an obvious and simple way around the anti-piracy software; all a person has to do is make a copy of the CD once and then use the copy to make more copies. Those invested in the downloadable music and digital music craze feel the anti-piracy software is really just a way to slow down some of the most avid copiers while the industry thinks of a more permanent solution.

Other teens support these new attempts to prevent people from getting music for free. They feel that music is a valuable part of everyone's lives that touches so many aspects that certainly free music or even cheap music should not even be an option. They fully understand why musicians deserve to be paid for the privilege of owning and listening to their music over and over again.

So what are some alternatives to illegally downloading digital music or free music?

There are many services that provide low-cost and virtually free music for professionals and individuals simply hoping to expand their music collection. For those still entrenched in the CD movement, there are some subscription services in development that will allow people to freely share unlimited CD's through the mail at very low cost and without violating Copyright Law.

As more services for downloadable music and digital music arrive on the scene and make a more competitive market, track downloads and album downloads are becoming cheaper. Even iTunes offers songs as 99 cents apiece, and entire albums at cut rates, so even young people can afford to buy music legally to enjoy.

As an alternative to digital music provided by major music providers, reputable royalty free music companies are bringing original tracks of music plus many high quality royalty free music versions of some favorite classical pieces to listeners at affordable prices and sometimes even free. Royalty free music companies such as Royalty Free Music.com offer huge and very comprehensive downloadable music libraries with collections from every genre from classical and jazz to rock, techno, dance and Hip Hop. And with royalty free music, you pay to satisfy Copyright Law upfront so you don't have to worry later about any additional fees. Many royalty free music companies even offer totally free music that is of excellent quality and different from anything else available.

The point with digital music is that listeners will continue to try to find ways to get free or cheap music; at this stage of technology, finding loopholes and ways that allow for freer sharing of information is just human nature.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Sweeney

7 Great Places To Download MP3 Music

If you are looking for free music then the internet is the right place for you. You will find a lot of websites where you can download MP3 music. Many of these sites offer free MP3 downloads or charge only a minimum amount of money, but the download is allowed usually only one-time.
The reason why MP3 is getting so popular is that that MP3 music usually is cheaper than any CD’s or DVD’s and some sites even offer it completely for free.

But the distribution of MP3 files over the internet may also have some downsides. The MP3’s you can download on many sites are protected by copyright, so the distribution and download of these MP3 files is illegal. Although there have been filed several lawsuits over this particular issue, but this practice still continues to flourish.

Luckily there are also some sites that offer only legal MP3 music for download, so you can be assured that all of your downloads from these sites are absolutely legal. No copyright or law will be broken, so you and your MP3 downloads remain secure.

The following list is only a short excerpt of the available sites that offer legal MP3 Music downloads, so a little research will bring you up with more sites.

You Can Download MP3 Music at MP3Musiq.com

MP3Musiq is the music downloading service that everyone is talking about.
They are proud to be the #1 downloading mp3 service that allows you to easily download Millions of FREE MUSIC MP3s, CDs, Games, Movies and much more!
With MP3Musiq you are not just limited to top music downloads you can download all kinds of DVDs video games and full version software programs.
Membership mean access to millions of music files, movie files, software programs, pictures, games, movies and TV shows...all without a single download fee.

You Can Download MP3 Music at Amazon.com

Amazon.com is not only an online bookstore, but also a place for free music as well.
The collection of free music they have in their archive will surprise you. Have a look at their MP3 music downloads section. You will find MP3 music downloads in various genres like, hard rock, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop, urban, metal, electronic, rock & pop, alternative, and many more.
If you are looking for dance tunes then this is also the right place for you. Also you will find jazz, reggae, country ditties, Latin, blues, and so on. To top it this site also features various collections from artists like Eminem, Usher, Christina Aguilera, Destiny’s Child, etc. If you want to stay updated Amazon.com with online news and so on, Amazon.com is your place to visit each and every day.

You Can Download MP3 Music at MP3.com

MP3.com is not only a great place to gather lots of MP3 Music files for many enthusiasts and music fans, but it is also one of the most popular and interactive communities you will find online.
Their product-range includes not only MP3 Music but also photo galleries, videos, album reviews, and free streaming. This community is one of the most popular you will find online.

You Can Download MP3 Music at eMusic.com

After you sign up for an account with eMusic.com, you get access to one of the most extensive collection of MP3 music for sale or purchase. As you have to pay if you want to download MP3 music from this trusted site, you can be assured that this takes place without breaking any law.
If you act fast you can get a little bonus at their site. At the moment they are running a promotion that allows you to download 25 MP3 music files for free, so you do not have to pay for them.

You Can Download MP3 Music at GarageBand.com

Garageband.com is another wonderful place if you want to download MP3 music. If you are a friend of indie music then this site is for you. Different independent artists and musicians will help you to broaden your musical tastes. You will definitely not find such an extensive collection offered anywhere in the physical world.

You Can Download MP3 Music at YourMP3.net

YourMP3.net is another great site if you look for MP3 music downloads. There you will find songs right off the charts, including songs like Numb/Encore by Linkin Park Feat. Jay Z,
Don’t You Want Me (brand new club hit) by DJ Hero.D, Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, My Boo by Usher and Alicia Keys and many more. You will also find song lyrics, full albums, and free software and screen savers. They also provide you with an online request form so you can ask for music you are looking for.

You Can Download MP3 Music at Lycos.com

There are many sites that offer MP3 music downloads and Lycos.com is one of them. They also offer extensive background information for all featured artist, including bios, discographies, photos, videos and lyrics. Their collection of MP3s and songs of many well known artists is really huge. So you only need to type in their name at the search box at the top of the page and if available you receive a list of links to that artist’s MP3 music downloads.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andreas_Obermueller

Legal Music Downloads

On July 28, 2004, French Internet access providers and music copyright owners signed a joint national charter aimed at cracking down on illegal downloads and expanding the amount of legal music tracks available online (AFP). This is the latest in a series of moves taken across the world to combat music piracy as production labels see more and more of their profits being lost to illegal downloads of music files.

The music industry has been saying the same thing for several years now: peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks are exponentially distributing pirated music across the world through the Internet, and this constitutes a copyright infringement. In English, this means that the fact that I downloaded a Tori Amos track through Kazaa yesterday and am listening to it right now makes me a criminal. So far, so good. Quite true as well.

But the real problem is not that people do not want to pay for music. Often I sample new music off the Internet before buying the CDs. Chances are that if I like most of the album, I’m going to buy it. On the surface this is what radio stations do when they play music. The difference, however, is that it has become insanely easy for me to acquire almost-as-good-as-original quality mp3s of any track that I want to listen to, and even if I don’t pay a dime, no one is there to catch me.

The principle of accountability has vanished. When one sees that there are two ways to acquire the same product, but by sacrificing a ‘little’ bit of quality you can get it for free without being penalized for it, what would most rational people do? P2P networks have made finding music off the Internet ridiculously easy, and most of us tend to ‘forget’ our social responsibility when it comes to such ‘trivial’ matters. To contribute to this, copy-protection techniques used on CDs by major production houses are always a step behind the latest cracking algorithms, and steps taken to prevent ‘ripping’ of CDs and DVDs have proven fruitless so far.

Enter music downloads of the legal kind. Disregarding the small number of ‘free’ legal music available for promotional purposes, more and more artists and labels have begun to provide a pay-per-download music service. In essence, you can purchase individual tracks or complete albums through a secure online transaction and then download your ‘purchase’ and, with variable limits to personal use, pretty much do whatever you want to do with it (Several providers digitally encode the files to prevent them from being played on other computers, or to be burned onto CD-Rs) .

This is both a move to encourage free-riders such as me to start acquiring ‘legal’ music and an economic adjustment to the digital music revolution. Developing technologies are changing the way people perceive and use music. The advent of iPod and other mp3 players has meant that more and more people are becoming accustomed to carrying around their complete music collections with the latest players offering space for around 10,000 songs. This holds frightening possibilities for record companies. There is a very real concern within the industry that the CD format is fast going out of style, and as technology evolves, consumer demands for the best ‘medium’ will change as well. Till a few years ago audio CDs offered unparalleled music quality, a factor record companies used to encourage people to ‘buy instead of steal (download)’. However, today’s high-quality digital formats mean that audio quality is comparable, and in some cases equal to, CDs. Some experts are even starting to predict that within a decade CDs will become history as digital music will evolve to a point where we will be have access to our entire music collection (hopefully paid for) wherever we want it: in our car, at work, anywhere in the house, even on the beach. Matched with promises (and the reality) of audio quality, this is a serious threat to traditional business.

Thus, providing legal music online is a means of the industry trying to position itself to take advantage of the rising trend of portable music collections. A quick glance across major online music stores tells us exactly so. While offering free-riders affordable music (allowing them to purchase only the tracks they like instead of forcing them to buy the complete album) to ensure that they do not turn to music piracy, sites like eMusic and Apple’s iTunes are backing the new trend. iTunes, Apple’s online music store, has the added distinction of being supported by perhaps the best mp3 player in the business, the iPod. In this combination, Apple has found a very secure marketing brand and ensured that it takes full advantage of this cross between technology and music.

Legal music downloads appear to be the perfect answer to stopping music piracy, at least the downloading kind. Therefore there is no surprise when one sees major record labels pushing to expand such services. However, recent developments tend to make us question what the overall agenda really is. After a period of consolidation of the digital music market in the last two years, albums available for download online are being priced higher than they would normally be in retail stores. It used to be that you could download a song for $0.99 and a complete album for $9.99, but now stores are setting higher prices, with tracks going for $1.50 or even $2.49 and $11.50 albums being sold for $12.50 and $13.00 online. What is going on?
In positioning themselves to take advantage of changing market forces, the music industry has also hit upon another major factor in determining sales: consumer behavior. Legal music downloads offer people like me the comfort of never having to waste time in retail stores looking for my favorite track from high-school days or wondering when the latest album of Nickelback would hit the shelves. Instead, all the hassles are removed with everything easily searchable, previewable and downloadable from the comfort of my computer chair (and this baby is very, very, comfortable). Consumers may not be usually rational, but they are always looking to save the effort when it comes to making any sort of purchases. Online stores (or is it the major recording labels? Who knows…) are now cashing into this very aspect of human psychology and are beginning to charge extra for a service they are portraying now as a privilege. Having already consolidated their core target market, the time has now come to increase revenues.

Would this drive people back towards music piracy? Highly unlikely. People are not evil, or criminal, by nature. Appeals to their better nature usually work, and that is the strategy adopted by agencies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who are actively involved in putting a stop to illegal music sharing. Media campaigns encouraging music lovers to pay a dollar or two for tracks instead of ‘committing a crime’ by downloading them for free are actually working as slowly but surely, more and more people flock to online music stores. And with existing customers sticking to this more ‘comfortable’ way of buying music, the industry is finally starting to win back ground it lost due to music piracy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Ber

Top 5 Cheap Web Hosting Service Features

If you're looking for a cheap web hosting service, there are many companies that offer low monthly rates to host (store) your site. Some examples are Yahoo, Bluehost, Network Solutions and Hostgator, just to name a few. Of course, not everyone is looking for the same webhosting features, but are all offers the same? The answer is no.

Believe it or not, there are web hosting companies that have millions of websites on their servers. If you multiply that by the average monthly fee of around ten dollars a month, that adds up to some serious cash flow! No wonder they are able to offer special deals to new subscribers with all the bells and whistles.

The information that follows is based on the widely used Linux server webhosting packages, although some firms offer Windows web hosting also. Forget about the difference here, as it will not affect you, unless you are an advanced user and intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft technologies, in which case, you probably need to use a Windows host.

Remember that a web host is simply a company that provides a storage area for your website. Along with this service, they usually provide a variety of obviously necessary and other nice to have add ons. Some of these include, bandwidth, disk space, a sitebuilder, free website templates, customer and technical support, MYSQL databases, POP email accounts, Fantastico, statistics like Webalizer or referrer logs, more than one hosting plan and of course other features too numerous to mention.

More specifically, we all want and need to save money and we don't want to waste it, so, based on what is discussed on internet forums and elsewhere the most, here is what to look for when searching for the best cheap web hosting plan. However, right away, it would be advisable to ensure you are not paying more than $10 a month for hosting, because it is not necessary unless you want extra special management controls. We'll also assume that you only want one website, but if you plan to create more in the future, best to get a plan that allows several or unlimited domains.

For the list that follows, one point should be given for each of the 5 items if the web host has these features. When researching hosting companies, a total score of 4 is very good, but 5 is excellent.

Top 5 Cheap Web Hosting Service Features

1. Customer Service and Technical Support - does the company offer email, phone and live chat (at their website) 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (24-7)? Do they reply to your questions within 24 hours or within minutes using live chat? How would you know? Try them out, even if you're not a customer yet - send them an email or try their live chat. Or, go to business forums like the Warrior Forum and search for similar discussions. If they have these features, then add 1 point for this company.

2. How long have they been in business? At least 1 year? Go to Google and type in "Who Is" and type in the company name, like xyz.com and see when their creation date was - if it was more than a year ago, you can at least know they have been in business for a while and will hopefully be here to stay. I would give them 1 point if they have been in business for at least 2 years to be on the safe side.

3. Do they offer unlimited bandwidth? Bandwidth can be best described as gas for a car. If your website runs out of bandwidth nobody will be able to visit it. 1GB of bandwidth is equal to over 100,000 hits. The average website uses less than 2 GB of bandwidth a month. Your bandwidth number used will normally reset back to zero on the first of every month.

Similarly, do they offer unlimited disk space? The more disk space you have the more files, pages, emails, and everything else you'll be able to use and store. Yes, unlimited sounds excessive I know, but if they offer it, better safe than sorry. If the company offers unlimited in both cases, give them one more point.

4. Guarantees - do they offer a money back guarantee, if for any reason, you want to cancel? If it is at least a 30 day guarantee and they will refund 100% of your money, that's good. Also, do they guarantee your site's uptime, in other words, that it will be live on the internet all the time, or over 99.9% of the time? If that doesn't happen, will they give you a full refund for that month? If the answers are yes to both of these questions, then add 1 more point.

5. Do they have Fantastico Deluxe? This program will allow you to install over 50 scripts instantly. Examples are WordPress, Joomla, discussion boards, ecommerce, polls and so on. Most people these days build websites based on WordPress because of it's search engine optimization features and available plugins, so using fantastico makes it easier. Give them one point if they provide fantastico at no extra charge.

And yes, there are some free web hosting plans out there, but do they place ads on your website? Do they offer 24-7 customer service? Will Google view your site the same if you are not willing to pay for hosting each month (they know which sites are free)? Frankly, are you serious about your internet site and are you treating it as a business? If so, then you should be willing to pay out a few dollars a month for an essential service. Also, if you want to build more than one domain, do they let you build them under one account? Not likely. All in all, it is advisable to skip the free webhosting for life offers out there.

So, there you have it. If you watch for these five recommended cheap web hosting features, you should be able to find one heck of a good home for your website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Black

Tips For Comparing Cpanel Web Hosting

There is no denying that Cpanel is the current leading control panel in the web hosting industry. Many hosting companies offer Cpanel hosting as the preferred control panel. But before you sign up, make sure you compare other hosting features. Here is a list of features that you may wish to compare.

1) Hosting space.

In a fiercely competitive market, many web hosting companies start to join the "hosting space" war. Each attempts to offer more space in order to beat its competitors. Today, many hosting companies are even offering unlimited hosting space. You are free to use the space as long as you don't abuse the server resources.

2) Bandwidth.

Bandwidth used to be expensive, and hosting companies tend to limit bandwidth in order to keep operational costs low. However, with the phenomenal growth of the Internet, hardware and software costs have plummeted. This leads to reduced bandwidth costs. Today, most hosting companies are able to offer unlimited bandwidth. So now you don't have to worry about your website being suspended due to bandwidth limit exceeded.

3) Number of domains.

As you grow your online business, the number of websites also start to grow. If your intention is to own a network of sites, you must make sure that your hosting account allows you to host multiple sites. In the past, most shared accounts allow you to host between 5 to 10 sites. If you want to host more sites, you have to sign up for a new account. Today, most hosting plans allow you to host an unlimited number of domains.

4) Number of databases allowed.

For Cpanel hosting, you are likely to use MySQL databases. Most open source scripts use this freely available database. It is rare for hosting companies to limit the number of databases in today's market. But make sure you double check! Some companies still place a limit to prevent server resources from being overloaded.

5) Number of files allowed.

It's certainly a dream come true. Webmasters and Internet marketers can run as many websites as they like on a single hosting account. Although many features are unlimited, it's foolish to assume that server resources are unlimited as well. Usually, in most shared server environments, the servers are severely overloaded due to hosting hundreds of sites at the same time. This means thousands of visitors may be trying to connect to the server concurrently. This leads to slow loading. So how to overcome this problem?

Some hosting companies choose to manage resources by limiting the number of files in a single account. This number vary, depending on the hosting company that you sign up with. It can be 50,000 files, or 100,000 files. Be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully before signing up. If you exceed this file limit, you may be asked to remove some files. You have little to worry about though. 50k files is a huge number. Most accounts won't even have 10k files.

Finally, make sure you sign up with a reputable web host. A hosting company with a good reputation tends to be more able to provide reliable hosting services.

Not all cpanel hosting are equal. Compare the web hosting company reputation, compare hosting feature including storage space, transfer, cpu usage, email sending limits, server speed and many other.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darren_W_Chow

Web Hosting With Free Domain Name

When signing up for a web hosting account, be sure to take advantage of the promotional items. Many hosting companies offer free domain names to entice new customers to sign up. Along with your hosting, you should be getting a free domain name. A domain name cost about $10 a year. So that means you are getting a $10 discount upfront on your hosting plan.

What happens if you wish to change web host?

Don't worry, your domain name won't be stuck with your hosting company. But you must transfer your domain name out to your favorite registrar (like GoDaddy or NameCheap) after you sign up for your hosting. The domain is free - it is given to you. You should have full control over the domain name. The only way to regain control is to request for a transfer. Send a support ticket to your hosting company, mentioning that you would like the domain to be transferred to your registrar. They will revert with the transfer instructions.

Once the domain has been transferred out, remember to change your domain name servers to point back to your servers. Otherwise, you will experience down time.

A domain name can become a very valuable brand. So even though it's offered to you free of charge, don't just register for any domain name. Make sure you pick one that suits your business.

You can make as many searches as you like on the web hosting site to see if the names that you want are available. Try to choose domain names that contain your primary keywords in it. For example, if you are selling "basketball shoes", you may wish to register something like "basketballshoes dot com". Always choose a dot com extension if it's available. A dot net or dot org will do as well, but they are not really meant for commercial sites.

After you have transferred the domain name to your registrar, you can switch hosting companies any time you like.

To do so, start by signing up for a new hosting account. Don't terminate your existing hosting account yet. Transfer all the files and databases to the new server. Sometimes, if you give the login details to the support department of the new company, they may even transfer everything for you. Test out the site on the new server. If everything works out fine, it's time to make changes to your domain name servers (DNS).

Go to your registrar, and make a request to change the DNS. You have to modify at least two fields - the primary DNS and the secondary DNS. Once the changes have been made, the site migration will take place. Do be patient and allow up to 48 hours for the information to be updated. If the domain name still point to your old server after 48 hours, recheck the DNS, and send an email to your registrar to see what could have gone wrong.

Usually, when done correctly, the domain name will point to the new site within a few hours.

Its common to have free domain registration when you signup annual hosting plan. You can transfer out the domain to your favourite registrar when you decided to change hosting company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darren_W_Chow

WinXP Registry Repair - Boot Faster, Use Faster

Most modern day computers, once they become a few months old, they start to become very slow, and there comes a time, when it takes ages to shut down and just start. Why is the boot process which is so important becoming slow? You need to understand that there is a controller behind every event that takes place and this is the registry. The registry is what needs to give the right commands to the operating system so that it can boot. When there are values in the registry that are completely corrupted, you will have to face such boot problems and an overall slow down in the performance of the computer. The only way you can be rid of this problem is to use a winxp registry repair tool.

Before we examine the winxp registry repair tool, we will discuss the manual process of going about this. If you type the msconfig command into the run dialog box, there is a pop up menu that comes up which is called the system configuration. Among the several tabs there is the start up option. On clicking this you will notice that there are several programs that are lined underneath which are checked. These are the programs that load at the boot time.

If you closely examine the list, you will find that many of those need not be initially loaded but can be done when wanted like your messenger or other commodities. This is why your computer is taking so long to load. To add up to things if the corresponding links in the registry are corrupt, these will not load and will cause the blue screen error and the like. This is why you need a winxp registry repair program.

The winxp registry repair program makes sure that the entire process that is detailed above is done automatically. So if you are a person who is not so technically sound, this is your option because this does not require human intervention. The only thing that you need to do is install the winxp registry repair tool and schedule the scan. Once it scans give the fix errors and -there you are - all your problems solved in just a single click.

Now Pay Close Attention Here-

There are many registry Repair Tools available, Every Registry Cleaner has some benefits as well some drawbacks. Check the Registry Cleaners Review, Also Don't Forget to Run a Free Performance Scan using our Top Pick.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shervin_Mutthu